1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of driving a light source, a display apparatus for performing the method, and a method of driving the display apparatus. More particularly, exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of driving a light source for improving display quality, a display apparatus for performing the method, and a method of driving the display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus includes an LCD panel displaying an image using am optical transmittance property of liquid crystal molecules and a backlight assembly disposed below the LCD panel to provide the LCD panel with light.
The LCD panel includes an array substrate, a color filter substrate and a liquid crystal layer. The array substrate includes a plurality of pixel electrodes and a plurality of thin-film transistors (TFTs) electrically connected to the pixel electrodes. The color filter substrate faces the array substrate and has a common electrode and a plurality of color filters.
The liquid crystal layer is interposed between the array substrate and the color filter substrate. When an electric field generated between the pixel electrode and the common electrode is applied to the liquid crystal layer, an arrangement of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer is altered to change the optical transmissivity of the liquid crystal layer, so that an image is displayed on the LCD panel. The LCD panel displays a white image of high luminance when an optical transmittance is maximized, and the LCD panel displays a black image of low luminance when the optical transmittance is minimized.
An arrangement of the liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer may not be uniform, so that light leakage may be generated when the LCD panel displays an image having little gradation, e.g., in a fully black image. Thus, display quality of the fully black image may be deteriorated, so that the contrast ratio (CR) of an image displayed on the LCD panel may be decreased.
A method of local dimming of a light source has been developed to improve the contrast ratio of an image, which individually controls an amount of light according to a position at which the image is displayed to drive a light source. In the method of local dimming of the light source, the light source is divided into a plurality of light-emitting blocks, and the amount of light of the light-emitting blocks is controlled in correspondence with dark and bright areas of a display area of the LCD panel. For example, a light-emitting block corresponding to a display area displaying a black image is driven at low luminance (e.g., turned off), and a light-emitting block corresponding to a display area displaying a white image is driven at high luminance.